WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, issued the following statement after President Biden’s press conference standing by his decision to withdraw American forces from Afghanistan as the Taliban gains control over the country and threatens the safety of Americans and our Afghan allies:

“President Biden is completely detached from reality. I listened to his own generals express their grave concerns that Afghan forces were not prepared for an American withdrawal and the inevitable Taliban assault. Instead of devising and implementing a strategy to responsibly withdraw our troops and ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for terrorists, President Biden set an entirely arbitrary deadline. And now, with every passing day, more towns and cities fall to the Taliban, the brutal regime that provided aid and comfort to the terrorists who cowardly attacked us on 9/11.

“Because of the President’s disastrous decision, security within Afghanistan has collapsed to the point where the Department of State is evacuating embassy personnel from the country and the Department of Defense is deploying 3,000 troops to assist in the evacuation process. We are now seeing the world’s most powerful country pleading with Taliban terrorists not to attack American citizens or murder the Afghans who had worked towards a free and democratic future. I am praying for our many friends in Afghanistan whose lives are in peril. It should have never been this way.”

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